Capcom Explains Reasoning Behind Mega Man’s New Look In His Latest Outing
Mega Man has undergone a number of physical transformations over the years and in his next outing, Mega Man 11, he’ll adopt a fresh new look. In a collection of videos about the latest game in the long-running series, Capcom explained why exactly the iconic character has had a design tweak.
Apparently, it’s all because of a shift across to a sharper environment. The designers originally created a prototype based on the Mega Man 8 model only to discover this particular style was far too flat and featureless when presented at a higher definition. To overcome this, they decided to make a new version highlighting subtle details like the lines on his body while equipping him with a more detailed blaster. These alterations paved the way for his 3D form.
The size of Mega Man was also a hot topic during the development of Mega Man 11, with the team wanting to show as much of his face as possible. A rule of thumb was that the smaller the screen, the more distorted he should look to make the game feel less cramped.
How light reflected off the character’s model was another major talking point during the design process. It was previously an aspect of Mega Man’s design the team had never had to consider. Eventually, each character for this particular entry in the series got their own lighting effects to bring their personality to life. Surprisingly, the game itself actually has no environmental lighting at all. Whether Mega Man should have outlines was one of the many other contentious debates as well.
The final design was a slightly distorted take on the famous video game character, with the style magnifying his head, arms, and legs. This was considered by Capcom as the ideal compromise between his 2D proportions and new look.
Capcom’s Mega Man 11 arrives on the Nintendo Switch on 2nd October. Tell us below if you’re a fan of the new look he’s rocking.
Daily Deal – Microsoft Flight Simulator X: Steam Edition, 70% Off
We’ve just launched an open beta for Creator Homepages, a new part of the Steam store designed to help players discover and connect with the developers and publishers behind their favorite games. With this feature, you can explore the full catalog of games created by the developers and publishers of games you enjoy and you can choose to follow those creators to be automatically notified when they release their next title.
How does it work?
Any developer or publisher on the platform can now set up a customized homepage to showcase their full catalog of titles and content. Once set up, these homepages can be found by clicking on the developer or publisher name from the store page of your favorite games.
Check out the official Creator Homepage Announcement Page, which includes a list of all the homepages so far. This will quickly become an overwhelming and unusable list as more developers create their homepages, so at the top of the page we’ve also specifically highlighted the developers and publishers behind games that you’ve recently played.
On these homepages, you’ll find standard lists of top-selling or new released titles from that developer or publisher.
You’ll also find collections that the developer or publisher has created to best highlight their portfolio of games and content available on Steam.
A studio might divide its games into collections by genre or franchise, or could choose to highlight their fan-favorite or top-selling games. A developer of only a single game might primarily dedicate their homepage to announcements of new projects.
Regardless of how each developer or publisher chooses to customize their homepage, you can easily follow them to be notified when they release their next title or post an announcement. Newly released titles from developers or publishers that you follow will show up at the top of your Steam homepage and we’ll send you an e-mail to let you know that they’ve released something new (as with other Steam e-mail notifications, you can opt out at any time by visiting your e-mail preferences page).
Creators can also set up unique URLs within Steam for easy reference to their homepage. You can see an example by following this customized URL for the Valve developer homepage: http://store.steampowered.com/dev/valve
Why Beta?
We’re pretty excited to get the core functionality into the hands of players and give developers the opportunity to set up their presence on Steam. While we haven’t worked out all of the smaller bugs or finished adding every feature we’d like to, we decided that the basic set of functionality is worth putting into the hands of players and creators. We still have a number of features that we are considering adding and there are still a few rough edges that need smoothing out, so opening this system up as a beta to players and developers will help us gather feedback and suggestions that inform the direction of those features.
Over the previous few weeks, we’ve worked with a number of developers and publishers on Steam to get their pages set up and help us work out as many of the bugs as we can. As a player, you’ll find that many of your favorite game makers probably already have a spiffy homepage created and customized. But there are still quite a few developers that have not yet had a chance to set up their pages and will do so during this open beta period.
For game developers, check out the Creator Homepages Steamworks documentation for more details and information on how the system works, the features that are included, and necessary permissions for game creators.
Reporting bugs and feedback
As always, we’ll keep an eye out for your feedback and suggestions as to what you’d like to see added or changed about this system.
Alibaba has more than 150 open source projects and is a long-time contributor to many others, Wei Cao, a Senior Staff Engineer at Alibaba, says that sharing knowledge and receiving feedback from the community helps Alibaba refine their projects. We spoke with Wei Cao — who is the head of Alibaba Cloud Database Department and leads the R&D of Alibaba RDS,POLARDB products — to learn more about the company’s open source focus and about some of the database-related projects they contribute to.
Linux.com: Why is open source so important for Alibaba?
Wei Cao: At present, Alibaba has more than 150 open source projects. We work on the open source projects with the aim to contribute to the industry and solve real-life problems. We share our experiences with the rest of the open source enthusiasts.
As a long-time contributor to various other open source projects, Alibaba and Alibaba Cloud have fostered a culture that encourages our teams to voluntarily contribute to various open source projects, either by sharing experiences or helping others to solve problems. Sharing and contributing to the community altogether is in the DNA of Alibaba’s culture.
When we first started to use open sources projects like MySQL, Redis, PostgreSQL, we received a lot of help from the community. Now we would like to give back to the same communities by sharing our accumulated knowledge and receive feedback from the community so that we can refine our projects.
We believe this truly represents the essence of open source development, where everyone can build on each other’s knowledge. We are dedicated to making our technology inclusive through continuously contributing to bug-fixing and patch optimization of different open source projects.
Linux.com: Can you tell us what kind of culture is within Alibaba to encourage its developers to consume and contribute to Open Source project?
Wei Cao: Alibaba has always had a culture of integrity, partnership, sharing and mutual assistance. At the same time, we always believe that more people participating in the community can promote the industry better and also make us more profitable. Therefore, our staff members are willing to pay close attention to open source projects in the community. They keep using open source projects and accumulating experience to give feedback on projects and jointly promote the development of the industry.
Linux.com: Can you tell us what kind of open source projects you are using in your company?
Wei Cao:Our database products use many open source projects such as MySQL, Redis, PostgreSQL, etc. Our teams have done feature and performance enhancement and optimization, depending on various use-cases. We have done compression for IoT and security improvements for financial industries.
Linux.com: Can you tell us about the open source projects that you have created?
Wei Cao:We will be releasing a new open source project, called Mongo-Shake, at the LC3 Conference. Based on MongoDB’s oplog, Mongo-Shake is a universal platform for services.
It reads the Oplog operation logs of a MongoDB cluster and replicates MongoDB data, and subsequently implements specific requirements through operation logs. Logs can provide a lot of scene-based applications.
Through the operation logs, we provide log data subscriptions to consume PUB/SUB functions and can be flexibly connected to adapt to different scenarios (such as log subscription, data center synchronization, Cache asynchronous elimination, etc.) through SDK, Kafka, MetaQ, etc. Cluster data synchronization is a core application scenario. Synchronization is achieved through playback after grabbing oplogs. Its Application Scenario includes:
Asynchronous replication of MongoDB data between clusters eliminates the need for double write costs.
Mirror backup of MongoDB cluster data. (Not support in this open source version)
Log offline analysis.
Log subscription.
Cache synchronization.
Through the results of the log analysis, it is known which caches can be eliminated and which caches can be preloaded to prompt the cache to be updated.
Monitor base on log.
Linux.com: Can you tell us about the major open source projects you contribute to?
Wei Cao: We have contributed many database-related open source projects. In addition, we have released open source projects, like AliSQL and ApsaraCache, which are widely used in Alibaba.
AliSQL: AliSQL is a MySQL branch, developed by Alibaba Cloud database team, and is servicing Alibaba’s business and Alibaba Cloud’s RDS. AliSQL version is verified to run many Alibaba workloads and is widely used within Alibaba cloud. The latest AliSQL also merged many useful
AliSQL does a lot of enhancement in the features and performance based on MySQL. It has more than 300 patches, We have added many monitor indicators, features, and optimized it for different user cases. enhancements from the other branches like Percona, MariaDB, WebScaleSQL, and also contains a lot of patches with Alibaba’s experiences.
In general test cases, AliSQL has 70% performance improvement over official MySQL version, according to R&D team’s sysbench benchmarks. In comparison with MySQL, AliSQL offers:
Better support for TokuDB, more monitoring and performance optimization.
CPU time statistics for SQL queries.
Sequence support.
Add Column Dynamically .
ThreadPool support. And a lot of Bugfix and performance improvements.
The founder of MySQL/MariaDB, Michael Widenius “Monty” has praised Alibaba for open sourcing AliSQL. We got a lot of help from the open source community in the early development of AliSQL.
Now open source AliSQL is the best contribution we have made to this community. We hope to continue our open source journey in future. Full cooperation with the open source community can make the MySQL/MariaDB ecosystem more robust.
ApsaraCache: ApsaraCache is based on the Redis 4.0, with additional features and performance enhancements. In comparison to Redis, ApsaraCache’s performance is independent of data size. It’s related to scenarios. It also has better performance in cases such as short connections, full memory recovery, and time-consuming instruction execution.
Multi protocol support
ApsaraCache supports both Redis and Memcached protocol with no client code need to be modified. ApsaraCache supports Memcached protocol and users can persist data by using ApsaraCache in Memcached mode just like Redis.
Reusing Redis architecture, we have developed new features of Memcache such as support for persistence, disaster tolerance, backup recovery, slow log audit, information statistics and other functions.
Ready for production
ApsaraCache has proven to be very stable and efficient during 4 years of technical grinding and tens of thousands of practical testing of production environment.
The major improvements in ApsaraCache are:
Disaster depth reinforcement refactors the kernel synchronization mechanism to solve the problem of full synchronization of native kernel caused by copy interrupt under weak network condition.
Compatible with the Memcached protocol, it supports dual copy of Memcached and offers more reliable Memcached service.
In short connection scenario, ApsaraCache makes 30% performance increase compared with the vanilla version.
ApsaraCache’s function of thermal upgrade can complete the thermal update of an instance within 3ms and solve the problem of frequent kernel upgrading on users.
AOF reinforcement, and solve the problem of Host stability caused by frequent AOF Rewrite.
ApsaraCache health detection mechanism.
This article was sponsored by Alibaba and written by Linux.com.
From the new trailer, we know that the hero will begin in city of Heliodor. The hero is then sent to jail by King Carnelian, who seems to have a grudge against the luminaries. We also got a good taste of what's to come with the the localized version of the title on PS4 and PC. The Switch version is expected to launch in the West eventually, but the 3DS version will remain a Japanese exclusive.
If you're looking to reserve your copy now, there are a few different options. There's the standard edition and "Edition of Light" on PS4 and PC, and a PS4 exclusive collector's edition called the "Edition of Lost Time." We've got all the details below on bonuses and where you can reserve your before launch.
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age Pre-Order Bonuses
Pre-orders from Square Enix will include an exclusive Dragon Quest XI lanyard. Pre-orders from the PlayStation Store will include a “The Legend Reborn” PS4 theme. Steam Pre-orders will include a PC wallpaper set.
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age Day One "Edition of Light"
The Edition of Light is a limited-time offer of the standard edition of the title. It will have a supplicant to replenish magic points, a healer to heal your characters, and three skill seeds for some extra experience.
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age "Edition of Lost Time"
The Edition of Lost Time will include the digital content of the Edition of Light, a 128-page hardback Companion Compendium featuring concept art and Akira Toriyama’s early designs, a two-disc music selection featuring pieces from the game, a cloth map, and a pep pop and 15 more seeds of skill to boost your characters.
From the new trailer, we know that the hero will begin in city of Heliodor. The hero is then sent to jail by King Carnelian, who seems to have a grudge against the luminaries. We also got a good taste of what's to come with the the localized version of the title on PS4 and PC. The Switch version is expected to launch in the West eventually, but the 3DS version will remain a Japanese exclusive.
If you're looking to reserve your copy now, there are a few different options. There's the standard edition and "Edition of Light" on PS4 and PC, and a PS4 exclusive collector's edition called the "Edition of Lost Time." We've got all the details below on bonuses and where you can reserve your before launch.
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age Pre-Order Bonuses
Pre-orders from Square Enix will include an exclusive Dragon Quest XI lanyard. Pre-orders from the PlayStation Store will include a “The Legend Reborn” PS4 theme. Steam Pre-orders will include a PC wallpaper set.
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age Day One "Edition of Light"
The Edition of Light is a limited-time offer of the standard edition of the title. It will have a supplicant to replenish magic points, a healer to heal your characters, and three skill seeds for some extra experience.
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age "Edition of Lost Time"
The Edition of Lost Time will include the digital content of the Edition of Light, a 128-page hardback Companion Compendium featuring concept art and Akira Toriyama’s early designs, a two-disc music selection featuring pieces from the game, a cloth map, and a pep pop and 15 more seeds of skill to boost your characters.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 06-24-2018, 09:01 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Destiny 2: Forsaken DLC Release Date And Pre-Order Guide (US)
Developer Bungie has finally revealed Destiny 2's big year-two expansion. It's called Forsaken, and it launches on September 4. Just like The Taken King for the original Destiny, Forsaken is a standalone expansion you'll have to buy separately even if you purchased Destiny 2's expansion pass. In fact, you can even buy a new "annual pass" to pre-order three additional content releases that will come out after Destiny 2: Forsaken.
Forsaken's story will bring players back to the Reef to fight off a group of powerful enemies who broke out of prison. The expansion also introduces a number of changes to Destiny 2, including a new mode called Gambit, as well as major changes to weapons, mods, and Masterworks. The idea is to keep players coming back once they've reached the endgame.
If you're ready to pre-order Destiny 2: Forsaken, you'll probably want to know what your options are. We've gathered all the info you need below.
Warning
Before diving into any of this, you should know that in order to play any of these versions of Destiny 2: Forsaken, you'll already need to own Destiny 2 and Expansions I and II. The core game and expansions are not included in any of the packages below.
Destiny 2: Forsaken Pre-Order Bonus
With that out of the way, if you pre-order Destiny 2: Forsaken at participating retailers, you'll receive Cayde's Exotic Stash. It contains the following items.
Ace of Spades Last Hand Exotic Ornament
Queen of Hearts Exotic Ship
Standoff Exotic Emote
Shades of Cayde-6 Armor Shaders
Destiny 2: Forsaken Standard Edition
The standard edition comes with the Forsaken expansion and nothing else. Here's where you can pre-order the standard edition right now.
This purchase does not include the Forsaken expansion. Instead, it offers standalone access to everything included in the annual pass. That means you get bonus rewards, as well as three "premium content releases" expected to arrive in winter 2018, spring 2019, and summer 2019.
The digital deluxe edition comes with the game, the annual pass, and the Awoken Legend Set, which includes Wrath Majestic Legendary Bow Ornament, Dirge Paladin Emblem, and Vestian Ghost Shell.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 06-24-2018, 03:01 AM - Forum: Lounge
- No Replies
Fallout 76 Release Date And US Pre-Order/Beta Guide (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
For anyone wondering when we'll get to return to the wasteland after 2015's Fallout 4, Bethesda has answered that question with a teaser trailer for the next entry: Fallout 76. The game has been confirmed for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. It appeared during Bethesda's presentation at E3 2018, where we learned a ton--including the fact that it's an online, multiplayer-enabled game. We also got a release date: November 14, 2018.
The game puts you in the shoes of a person who resided in Vault 76. Base-building returns from Fallout 4, and players can hunt down items that will allow them to fire nuclear missiles at areas of the map. The game is said to be four times bigger than its predecessor. We've got a complete roundup of all the Fallout 76 details.
Whether you're a diehard fan of the series or you want to see what all the hype is about, you might be ready to lock in your Fallout 76 pre-order. If so, we have all the information you need below.
Pre-order bonus
A pre-launch beta for Fallout 76 has been announced. The only way to get access is by pre-ordering, so if you're eager to play it ahead of launch, you'll definitely want to take a look at the links below. A beta release date has not yet been announced, but the beta will be available on Xbox One first.
Standard Edition
Suggested retail price: $60
The standard edition of Fallout 76 comes with just the base game but is already available to pre-order.
Amazon: $60 ($48 with Amazon Prime) -- PS4 | Xbox One | PC
Best Buy: $60 (with $10 reward) -- PS4 | Xbox One | PC
One step above the standard edition is the Deluxe edition, also known as the Tricentennial edition. You get the base game along with a variety of in-game bonus items. That includes the following goodies:
Tricentennial Power Armor Customization for the T-51, T-45, T-60, and X-01 Power Armors
Tricentennial Weapon Customization for the 10MM Pistol, Hatchet, and Laser Rifle
Spectacularly Handsome Vault Boy Mascot Head
Patriotic Uncle Sam Outfit
Celebratory Vault Boy Saluting Emote
First-Class Tricentennial Workshop Posters
Tricentennial Commemorative Photo Frame
Provided you're interested in those bonuses, you can pre-order this version from select retailers through the links below.
Amazon: $80 ($64 with Amazon Prime) -- PS4 | Xbox One | PC
Those willing to spend more can get a much grander package. In addition to a copy of Fallout 76 itself, the Power Edition gets you a ton of extras, the centerpiece of which is a T-51 Power Armor helmet. This is actually wearable and is equipped with a voice modulator speaker and a working headlamp. This comes with a West Tek canvas carrying bag.
Also included is a map showing Fallout 76's world. This measures 21 inches by 21 inches and glows in the dark. Additionally, there are 24 figurines based on in-game models (covering likes like creatures and vault dwellers), a steelbook, and bonus in-game items (outlined with the Deluxe edition).
Celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the iconic Street Fighter franchise with the ultimate tribute to its arcade legacy in the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection. This content-rich all-in-one package highlights the series' past in an anthology of 12 classic titles with arcade-perfect balancing including the original Street Fighter, Street Fighter II, Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II, Super Street Fighter II: Turbo, Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter III, Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact and Street Fighter III: Third Strike.
The collection also offers a definitive online experience across four of the included titles; Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II: Turbo, Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Street Fighter III: Third Strike. Street Fighter players can recreate the classic arcade gaming experience by competing against the CPU whilst waiting for friends in online battles where they can put their fighting skills to the ultimate test. Fans of the series can also enjoy diving into the past 30 years of Street Fighter history with rich character bios, a huge Museum Mode including never before seen art and interactive timeline, and listen to tracks in the Music Player.
GAMEPLAY FEATURES:
* Celebrate 30 years of the most iconic fighting game series The hit series with over 39 million units in global sales returns for its 30th anniversary celebration with a compilation of 12 classic arcade titles in one package.
* Relive the titles that made gaming history Includes the original Street Fighter released in 1987 which introduced two of gaming's most famous heroes, Ryu and Ken. Additionally, the iconic Street Fighter II became the first ever one-on-one video game that gave players a choice of characters, including the debut of the series' strongest female Chun-Li. Street Fighter III continued the core numbered series and was the first game to introduce the parry attack.
* New gameplay options including online play Players can utilize save states as they progress through the game offline. In addition, players can duke it out online in four classic titles (Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II: Turbo, Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Street Fighter III: Third Strike). In addition to Ranked and Casual Match options, up to four players can join a lobby where they can play against the CPU while waiting for their match. Each title will have their own Global leaderboard and the "rewind" tech ensures low-latency online battles.
* Hadoken your way down memory lane Revisit historic moments from the series and explore an interactive timeline of events that helped create one of the world's leading fighting game series. View stunning pieces of concept art and uncover little known facts behind each game release.
* Learn more about fan-favorite characters Scroll through character bios and learn new details about series favorites whilst enjoying sprites and key animations to see how the classic fighters have evolved over time.
* Remember the tunes! Sit back and enjoy the most memorable Street Fighter tracks from the collection in the Music Player.
Mario and his friends are ready to take center court in the Mario Tennis™ Aces game! Unleash a volley of fun by challenging your friends and family locally* or by hopping online** to take on the world. In Adventure mode, experience a new flavor of tennis gameplay, with a variety of missions, boss battles and more. Intense matches await!
Features
Rally against other players in singles or doubles as one of 15+ Mushroom Kingdom characters.
Up your game with new tricks like Zone Speed and Zone Shot. Slow down time to pull off near-impossible returns or aim your shots with pinpoint precision. With careful planning, you can even break your opponent’s racket for an instant KO.
Set out to rescue Luigi from the Legendary Racket in Adventure Mode! Equip different rackets and take on challenges and bosses that will put your tennis skills to the test.
Play with up to 4 players locally* or online**.
Swing your Joy-Con™ controller like a real racket in Swing Mode.
Take on CPU opponents in the Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup, or Star Cup in Tournament Mode.
*Additional accessories may be required for multiplayer mode. Sold separately.
**Nintendo Account required. Online services and features, including online gameplay, are free until the paid Nintendo Switch Online Service launches in September 2018.
